GRAZ, Austria — Herbert Schweiger
died on the July 5 in his 88th year in Neuberg an der Mürz. A member of the 1st SS
Panzer Division “Leibstandarte
Adolf Hitler” during the war, he
was active afterwards on the German national scene and in National
Socialist circles.

<> Born on Feb.
22, 1924 in Spital am Semmering in Austria’s Steiermark province, Schweiger joined the Waffen-SS, the elite international branch of the German armed forces during World War II) when
he was 17 years old. Following
his release from internment as a prisoner of war, he joined the VdU = Verband
der Unabhängigen(Association
of Independents) and then the
FPÖ = Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Austrian
Freedom Party.) In 1980 he was instrumental
in electing a German nationalist
president of Austria. On several occasions he was arrested for the crime of
Wiederbetätigung
(reactivation) of National
Socialist ideas. He was the author of a number ofcontroversial
books.

For many years Schweiger was a
popular guest speaker in Germany and Austria. His publications
include: Wahre dein Antlitz: Politik, Lebensgesetze und die
Zukunft des deutschen Volkes(Preserve
Your Integrity: Politics, Rules for
Living and the Future of the
German People) in 1963; Deutschlands neue Idee: Nationales Manifest für Deutschland und Europa(Germany’s
New Idea: National Manifesto for Germany
and Europe) in 2004; and Mythos Waffen-SS: Militärische Leistung und weltanschauliches Fundament einer europäischen Elitetruppe(Saga
of the Waffen-SS: Feats and Philosophical Foundation of an Elite European Military Formation) in 2007.

>

The
following is an interview Schweiger gave to Deutsche Stimme
(German Voice), the official publication of the German National Democratic Party, in June 2009, just before he
was about to begin a two-year
prison sentence for working to revive and “reactivate” the National Socialist idea in
Austria. In it, an unwavering warrior bears true
testimony to the Germanic spirit
and to the Faith and Cause,

which he so faithfully upheld.

This interview was conducted by Deutsche
Stimme editors Henrik Ostendorf and Adrian Preissinger.

DEUTSCHE STIMME:Mr. Schweiger, several
weeks ago you were tried in Klagenfurt

District Court for so-called Wiederbetätigung
(reactivation of National Socialist ideas) and sentenced to two years in prison. It is possible
that in a few weeks
you will have to begin serving your sentence. What exactly were you charged
— and what do you say to the
charges?

SCHWEIGER:
My indictment reads as follows: “... In consideration of the foregoing, Herbert Schweiger is charged with composing, publishing and distrib-uting
the books Deutschlands neue Idee: Nationales Manifest für Deutschland und Europa and Wahre dein Antlitz: Politik, Lebensgesetze und die Zukunft des deutschen Volkes. It is clear that in his activities as
lecturer, he wanted to revitalize and propagate specific aims and goals
of the National Socialist German Workers Party in Austria ....He has committed the offense listed in Section 3 of the Verbotsgesetz (Prohibition Law), both subjectively and objectively.”

The indictment takes sentences from my books out of context in order to fabricate grounds for silencing me. My “crime” consists of discus-sing World War II with the present generation,
which after more than 60 years of anti-German brainwashing has a very sketchy understanding of that war. As a member of the generation that experienced it, I am able to
tell young people what it was
really like, and for this reason
the Powers-That-Be feel
they must take me out
of circulation.

The Germans in Germany are unaware of the extent to which patriotic Austrian Germans are being persecuted. My
whole trial has been a procedure for persecuting loyalty to our Volk.

In 1996 I was arrested on account of my book Die Evolution des Wissens(The
Evolution of Knowledge). In 1997 I was convicted by the
Leoben Court of Wiederbetätigung(reactivation) and sentenced to 16 months in prison with a minimum
of four months before
eligibility for parole. My first conviction was in 1959, when I was jailed for three months becauselectures I gave in Germany. In 1962 I assisted freedom fighters
in South Tyrol
by sharing my wartime
experiences as a sapper with the
Leibstandarte Adolf Hitlerduring the
War. We completed demolition exercises, for which I was jailed several weeks. In 1989 I was jailed several months for writing and circulating the article “Recht
auf Wahrheit” (The Right
to truth.)

As for my present sentence — I
don’t have to begin serving it until the fall. I told the judge: “Go ahead, lock me up! My
wife is dead, and this way
someone will be serving me
breakfast every
morning. I am looking forward to using the prison library. In my free time I can write a new book. After all I have been through, you can’t scare me.” There is very little the System
can do to an 85-year-old man who still has his wits and whose
will is intact.DEUTSCHE STIMME:Let’s talk about your life history. You volunteered
for the WAFFEN-SS and remained
with it until the end of the war. Why did you join the SS, and
to what extent did your
experiences with this
organization form and influence your later life?

SCHWEIGER:
First of all, you would have to understand and be familiar with the defining experiences of my generation, the generation
born in the 1920s. We experienced
severe hardship and deprivation in Austria following World War I, as a result
of Allied treachery at Versailles. The victorious powers, you will
recall, violated all the
assurances they had given the
German and Austrian empires at
the time of the armistice. There were a million unemployed, of whom a third
were the so-called “Ausgesteuerten,” those whose public
assistance had run out. They did not get a penny! It was all they could do to put soup on
the table.
When I was a boy, half of my classmates came to school hungry, without breakfast. A hungry child cannot concentrate
on his lessons. This
situation continued until the Anschluß
(unification with Germany) in 1938. Another factor that
influenced the prevailing mood in
those days was the anti-German policy of clerical Austrian fascism. After Austria
joined the Reich in 1938, the terrible deprivations ended almost
immediately.
The Volksgemeinschaftsgedanke (the concept of ethnic
community) provided a basis for
solving our national and social problems, and it made us enthusiastic adherents of National Socialism. Thanks to my
personal observations of
how National Socialism solved the critical problems of the common people, I too was
inspired to become politically
active. I joined the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) and soon became leader of 400 youngsters. For me, the
Waffen-SS represented the military and spiritual power of a fresh
new movement, a national renaissance,
of which I wanted to be a part.
Let me emphasize, as a graduate of the Braunschweig Junkerschule (SS
officers’ candidate school), that Weltanschauung (worldview) was the
principal subject we were
taught. I say this in response
to the eternal alibi of certain irresolute individuals, who insist that we were merely “soldiers like all the
others.”

Our head instructor was Konrad Lorenz, who later became a renowned
professor, ecologist and Nobel Prize winner. At that time he was head of
the Psychology Department at
Königsberg in East Prussia. It was made quite clear to us that we were
fighting for the survival of
Western
civilization.
Europe’s future, if it was to have a future, depended on our ability to overcome both Bolshevism
and the rule of Grosskapital,
or “Globalism,” as it is now called.
Our instructors emphasized that since 1917, Bolshevism had liquidated
50 million peasants, artisans, aristocrats and intellectuals; and that Stalin was propagating world
revolution and world conquest as his strategic goal. The training I
received at the Junkerschule has inspiredme
all my life.
Upon graduation I was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer
(lieutenant) in the 1st Pionierkompanie (Sappers) of the lst
SS-Panzer Division “Leibstandarte
Adolf Hitler.” I
began my duties on the Eastern Front in July 1941 and was wounded three
times, the last time at Plattensee

(in Hungary). The Americans captured me while
I was recuperating in a military
hospital. Then it was hands up, tattoo blood type on left arm,

and straight to the notorious Altheim prison
camp. Later I was at the Ebensee camp,
where after half a year, I was able to escape under the barbed wire to relative
freedom.
Friedrich Nietzsche has always fascinated me. He influenced me more
than any other philosopher. Thanks to Nietzsche as well as numerous other Western philosophers,
beginning with pre-Socratic Greeks I have developed my inner self, so that I am
able to experience my Weltan-schauungas a kind of religion. It is not a religion
in the sense of a particular
confession, but rather a metaphysical connection to a higher plane of existence. You could
say that for me, religion is the
worship of Life itself.

The comradeship at the front contributed greatly to forming my character, along with my basic political and
philosophical convictions. The
realization that we were fighting for the survival of Europe and the Reich against both Bolshevism and
Globalism inspired us strongly.
We were bound by a
comradeship that today’s youth cannot imagine. The increasingly international character of
Waffen-SS is seldom taken into
account. By
the end of the War, most of its members were no longer German. They
came from every country in the world, especially France
and Scandinavia.
After 1945 the puppet government began its vicious attacks on our
honour, which we defended as best we could. After being “liberated” by our enemies, 700,000 German
Austrians lost their jobs overnight for having been members of the
Party. Along with other persecuted returnees I became
active in the Heimkehrer Hilfs- und Betreuungsstelle (Organization for Aid and Assistance to
Returnees), the Verband der Unabhängigen(Association
of Independents) und then the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Austrian Freedom Party), which evolved out
of the HHuB.

DEUTSCHE STIMME.Your involvement in contemporary politics is not
limited to “reactivating National Socialism.” You have published
several books dealing with questions
of appropriate
policies and programs for our time. Can you briefly outline your idea
of the policies that would enable Germanyand
Europe to cope with the problems of the present?SCHWEIGER:
The parameters of a scientifically sound worldview are defined by
evolution, genetics and behavioral science — that is, Volk und
Rasse (folk and race). There
is no such thing as universal equality of human beings. This has nothing to do with value judgments of the relative merits of individual peoples or races, which may be truly great or even unique. The simple truth is that nations, peoples and
races vary greatly in every respect. Politics and policies are determined by natural laws,
not the other way around.
Politics cannot determine natural
laws! This is the demonstrable truth, even though our
pathetic and shortsighted politicians
keep trying to convince us otherwise.DEUTSCHE STIMME:You have experienced the War and postwar period as
well as the decades since then. When you survey such a long period, do
you have the feeling that all
is lost? Or, to express the question differently: where can one find hope?

SCHWEIGER:Our hope is in the younger generation, especially the
young people in the former DDR.
This is because what was called East Germany during the
Cold War was less Russianized than West Germany was Americanised, and the national spirit survived better in
the East. In this respect the
former East Germany has been
compared to a woman who suffers
the eternal fate of women in a
conquered land, whereas West Germany
has been compared to a woman who
prostitutes herself. The
DDR agitation against
Capitalism had a positive effect
on German youth, despite or because of the collapse of Communism. Today’s youth in the former DDR is nationalist, socialist and anti-capitalist, as was my generation
[the “Greatest
Generation” as American authors
like to say.] Despite formidable difficulties and
dangers, I see great
opportunities ahead.

DEUTSCHE STIMME:In concrete terms, what would Germany and Austria
have to do in order to be able to offer future generations hope for the
future?

SCHWEIGER:There are real alternatives for Europe as a whole. The
national socialism of the National Socialist German Workers
Party has given way to a European-wide movement. In considering our
future prospects, we must consider
the biological point of view. The scientific discoveries of recent years have made it ever more clear that
biology is life. A nation that ignores the laws of life and nature and violates biological imperatives can have no stability in the long run. It causes its own downfall. Geopolitically, the only thing that can protect us from demographic inundation by the overwhelming population masses of Asia and Africa is partnership
with Russia.DEUTSCHE STIMME:As you look back and take stock from the vantage of
your long life, do you feel that
you have been able to pass on some part of your convictions and legacy?SCHWEIGER: Yes, I believe I have. I have done my utmost for the
enlightenment of coming
generations with lectures and book publications, which are directed toward the younger
public.

DEUTSCHE STIMME:
The last question: what are your sentiments in case the Klagenfurt
verdict is upheld and you are compelled to serve your prison sentence? Do you have any regrets?

SCHWEIGER:I bear no hatred, and I feel no anger. As individuals, I absolve those who persecute
and convict me. They were born into the Zeitgeist(spirit of the age) that made
them what they are. With no sense of Volk, they are unable to
resist the psychology of occupation, subordination and
“multiculturalism,” imposed on all Europe by our victorious enemies. They are all
too human! Whether they suffer
from lack of character and intelligence or whether they simply succumb to opportunism, they are unable to
escape the dictates of Umerziehung (“re-education”) [or “de-education”
as the case may be] that the
victors of World War II imposed on us. I cannot absolve certain judges and prosecutors, however.
This is because our Reich is still occupied both physically and
spiritually, in violation of international law. Some of these judges
and prosecutors are actively serving the interests of the occupiers,
for their own personal gain.

As for drawing a balance
and summing up my life — if I could live it over again, I would live it
exactly as I have done. I regret none of my choices or actions.
When my father lay on his deathbed he said, “I have never been untrue to myself!” I am
able to say the same thing. Furthermore,
if a person is able
to exhibit a clear countenance (“Antlitz bewahren”), his enemies will respect him. The
greatest mistake one

can make is to apologize for a fundamental
and deeply held conviction.

DEUTSCHE STIMME:
Herr Schweiger, we thank you for this interview and extend our best
wishes!